Thursday, February 3, 2011

And the weekend expeditions continue... The dip in mercury levels does accelerate the plans !

New York is a city that never fails to amaze me. In each of my previous trips, I have tried to explore a different aspect of the city.

The first trip is always a sight seeing trip for almost any city and it wasn't different for New York. I tried to explore the suburbs in the next trip driving past Brooklyn, Bronx etc. Without visiting these, one is easily led to believe that Manhattan IS New York. The next one was a walking trip through manhattan which was a marathon walk from Times Square till Wall street.

In this one, which is probably the most spontaneous amongst all my New York trips, I went to an opera for the first time in my life. And like every other 'first' experience in life, this too was an experience which was special.

It was saturday morning around 11 AM and we (Ashish (a friend) and I) were at Times Square wondering 'what next'. I have always wanted to watch a musical at Broadway ever since i visited New York. So we checked out if there were any of them just after lunch. The tickets were not affordable and we didn't have reviews of any of the musicals. Hence, we decided to give it a miss and walk down to Lincoln Square (The Metropolitan Opera) to checkout if there is any Opera scheduled for the afternoon.

Tosca and La Traviata were the ones scheduled and only Tosca was the only one scheduled for the afternoon. At times, it is good to be without options - makes your life easier.

Went to the ticket counter - options were given (not a problem here - because we weren't in a mood to bet a huge sum of money !) . We picked the second cheapest amongst the lot and ended up with standing tickets on the 'orchestra floor'. If i were to look back at this decision, it was real good value for money - especially for the first Opera when I was really not sure of the value of the performance to me. It is a different matter that i may not choose that option the next time around.

Now back to Tosca. Tosca, a creation of Giacomo Puccini, is a play setup in Rome during the early 1800s. It is a story of love, sacrifice and jealousy. Amazing performances by Sondra Radvanovsky (Tosca) and her lover, Marcelo Alvarez (Cavaradossi). The story was fairly simple but really powerful in its depiction. The subtitles on the small displays in front of the seats made it easier to follow the plot and get immersed in the story. The applause at the end was a sign of the success of the show. The music was pretty good. Though it didn't stand out it anyway - it certainly did compliment the story very well. Tosca adds on to the list of 'my firsts' in North America...

The only uncomfortable situation in the whole show was our attire. We were probably the most casually dressed. Ashish had a night out the night before and i was fresh(?) from travel the previous night - Certainly it doesn't mean we would have looked any different in formals !!

We were also probably the youngest at the show - But i am glad we made it.